Bring Take

During this lesson we're going to learn the differences between bring and take.

When you talk about transporting or moving objects, animals or people, from one place to another, you can either use bring (the object here) or take (the object there).

Bring or take are used depending on the location of the person who's speaking in any given moment, and the direction in which the object is being moved, either towards, or away from the person speaking or listening.

Bring is used when an object is moved towards the position in which a person is speaking, and Take is used when an object is moved away from the position in which a person is speaking.

The person speaking also needs to consider the direction of an object to be transported towards, or away from the person listening.

If you're talking about moving an object from another place to the place where you're speaking in that moment, then you need to use bring (the object here) for example: I need to bring my car here.

This means that I need to move my car from the other place where it is now, to the place in which I'm speaking at that moment (the place which is here).

Here's another example: Can you bring my dog here?

This means that I'm asking you if you can transport my dog which is presently in another place, to the place in which I'm speaking at that moment (the place which is here).

If you're talking about moving an object from the place in which you are speaking at that moment to another place, then you need to use take (the object there) for example: I need to take my bike there.

This means that I need to move my bike from the place in which I'm speaking at that moment, to a specific place which we spoke about before (the place which is there).

Here's another example: Can we take your horse there?

This means that I'm asking you if we can move your horse from the place in which we and the horse are at that moment, to a specific place which we spoke about before (the place which is there).

Here's yet another example: Do you want me to bring you your camera?

This means that I'm asking you if you want me to move your camera which is in the place in which I'm speaking at that moment, to the place where you are listening from.

Just to confuse you even more, here's another example:

If it's raining outside and you're about to leave your house, you could say I'm going to take my umbrella with me (Not: I'm going to bring my umbrella with me). In this case you need to use Take because you're going to carry, or take the umbrella away from the place in which you're speaking at that moment.

So, now that you know the difference between bring and take, try chatting with some new friends on GoSpeakEnglish and see if they understand you if you say something like: I'm going to bring you a photo which a friend took of another friend taking me around the bars before she took her dog to the vet and then brought me back home!

And that's the end of this lesson!

Now you can see if you've understood the video, and do the test on GoSpeakEnglish.

You can also watch many other English video lessons on GoSpeakEnglish.